JAMA: Addressing Racism in Preventive Services: A Methods Report for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force

This paper, published in JAMA, summarizes the methods used to study racism and health equity in support of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). In the detailed report, the USPSTF, Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, and Abt Global answered a series of questions designed 1) to articulate the definitional and conceptual issues around racism and health inequity, and 2) to describe how racism and health inequities are currently being addressed in clinical preventive services. This report represents the first systematic effort to understand how race, and more specifically racism, and health inequities in racial and ethnic groups are addressed and can be addressed by USPSTF.

The Abt KPCHR SRC team audited published literature, a subset of USPSTF recommendations on cancer and cardiovascular topics, recent reviews on interventions to reduce health inequities in preventive health or to prevent racism in health care, and relevant organizations such as professional societies to assess how they are addressing racism and health inequity.